


Broken Wings Can't Hold A Soul Together

by grimdarkroxy



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternia is a continent, Demonstuck kind of i have no clue, F/F, F/M, Felt Mansion is a cafe/bar thing called Homely, M/M, Prospit and Derse are huge cities, Skaias a planet, idk what this is, more characters and relationships to be added, trolls and humans coexist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-02 11:38:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2810738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimdarkroxy/pseuds/grimdarkroxy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>CURRENTLY ON HIATUS</p><p>Dave Strider lost his Bro after Strider Initiation, and now Scratch wants him and his older brother Dirk to complete a contract that'll bring Bro back and leave the two young Striders as demons. And now suddenly there's a love interest?</p><p>Meanwhile a serial killer is on the hunt in their world, and she's painting the twin cities of Prospit and Derse with pure and undiluted blood.</p><p>You bet your plush rump this is gonna be a wild ride.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Revelations

**Author's Note:**

> hello again, you may know me from my other johndave story, Humid and Windy Weather (shortened), which is currently on hiatus as i have lost interest in the idea for the time being. but i am here to bring you this story/thing i made up at three thirty am, and have no idea how to describe it, other than i have a lot of plot bunnies for it.
> 
> anyways, enjoy!
> 
> last minute edit for notes: nothing was changed on here but this note section. if anyone is interested i do have a tumblr and its calliopethegreat.tumblr.com
> 
> (thats all since i posted this story on my tumblr and i just thought i should put my tumblr on here)

It was easy for Dave to shut off his mind while he was walking down the street. He had never really needed music, his thoughts were just kind of minimized. They were still there, just temporarily ignored. Bumping into people wasn't a problem at all. Nah, all he needed to do was open his eyes, walk, and let his reflexes take over if need be.

Yeah there was that one time he almost tripped but nobody talks about that, because Dave will always deny it ever happening.

Dave wasn't wearing his shades nowadays. Back then, when he was younger, most kids weren't being born with funky eye colors. Now, Dersites more often than not had eye colors that would have been considered insane, or diseased. Or something. Prospitans were kind of weird about it back then, at least the higher ups. But the government had shifted incredibly so in the past five years that Dave had said 'fuck it' and just gave up on wearing shades. Bro was still attached to his own pair, but Dirk was slowly letting go. Dave still had his pointy pair, along with the ones he more recently had worn. A pair of aviators a pen pal had sent him. Dave had lost contact with the guy around six years ago. Dave was nineteen now, and it still hurt him, even if nothing had really happened.

Dave shook his head. He really shouldn't be thinking about that. He scoffed a little. It was funny how five minutes ago he said he was able to shut his thoughts off and now he was reminiscing like a man in his late nineties. Gross.

Dave walked into the bar that he was meeting his sister in. It was technically a bar and a cafe, but it was great either way. It was huge to be perfectly honest, like Dave was pretty sure it used to be a house and they just took down some walls to make it what it is now. It was a really old building, but it had been remodeled a couple months ago, so there was nothing to worry about. The staff list was huge, probably because Homely was really popular and it needed the staff, but seriously. It was run by some guy who no one really knew the name of, it was either Andrew Porter or Peter Hussie. Something like that. Yeah. He wasn't around much, so it was really looked after by this Scratch guy, who was pretty cool. Kind of. Eh. That was pretty much Dave's reaction whenever he was asked about Scratch.

Right.

Dave had to find his sister. Scratch was kind of Rose's mentor, or something. They were both really into psychology. Scratch was a professor at this really big university and Rose was really smart so. 

“I'm over here Dave.”

Dave looked over to his left, and spotted his sister at their usual table, and headed over there. The place was moderately packed. It wasn't rush hour yet, so there weren't too many people there, but still enough that it made Dave slightly annoyed. It was normal for Dave to be annoyed, he didn't like people, so it was kind of hard for him to make friends.

Dave stood next to the table, nodding at his sister.

“Sup.” Dave said, casually leaning on the table slightly.

“It always amazes me how word conscious you are dear brother. You should probably sit next to me today, we have guests this evening.”

Dave's blood almost immediately ran cold. He let out a little breath of air that was his version of a sigh. Great. The blonde sat next to Rose slowly, and when one of the waitresses came by he ordered a glass of root beer. Dave saw Rose had finished the tea she had had prior to him arriving, and was ordering a second one.

“I don't get how you can drink that stuff without like, honey or something.” Dave said, a small grimace on his face as he watched Rose take the last remaining sip of her tea before the waitress took it away.

“I don't get how you don't want to try it. I think you wouldn't be so high strung all the time if you tried some tea. I think you'd like either green tea or chai. Hm. Next time you visit my plot you're trying some tea.” Rose declared, sounding final about her decision.

“What? Oh come on. I'm not doing it.” Dave narrowed his eyes a little bit. No way.

“You are. But I'm afraid our guests are here.” Rose said after taking her tea from the waitress that Dave hadn't even noticed arrive. He took a sip of his root beer after saying a customary Homely thank-you. It was something that you had to learn from experience of visiting Homely, and it basically consisted of saying 'serenity' and nodding. Almost every costumer at Homely knew that Serenity was actually just every hoard of fireflies Scratch had owned since he was young.

The blonde looked up as two incredibly dorky looking people were waved over by Rose.

“Rose why are we meeting middle schoolers in a cafe?”

“Shh. Here they come. And they're the same age as we are.” Rose hushed Dave as he cracked a grin at his own joke, that honestly wasn't even funny. There was one girl and one guy, both looking particularly similar in the same way Dave and Rose did. The two were kind of short, but Dave was probably just freakishly tall. They looked younger than Rose and himself, and Dave honestly wondered if Rose was telling the truth about their ages. They both wore glasses, and they were both very pretty, but honestly, Dave was not just a little gay. He was incredibly gay. So really he was truly looking at the guy. And god damn he was really attractive.

Slow down there bro, you don't even know his name.

Dave considered that his brain was probably right, and that he should probably wait the situation out before doing anything.

“Hello, please, sit down.” Rose said, polite as always. Dave almost rolled his eyes, but then remembered that Rose would probably step on his foot when he did, she always knew when he was being rude.

The two possible twins sat down opposite the other possible twins, and the other people in the bar probably thought that table was reserved for twins only.

“So, why am I here again Rose?” Dave asked, honestly not sure why his hang out time with Rose was being interrupted by nerds. Dave knew they were nerds, just look at them! Probably into science and valence electrons and all that jazz...

“Did you not receive my messages? Or did you just assume we were the only ones meeting?” As soon as Rose was finished and Dave had a look of incredible annoyance on his face, Dave heard a laugh that almost made his heart stop. He glanced over at the source and it was coming from the guy. Dave's eye twitched. Not cool. Laughs weren't allowed to be that cute. 

“Sorry, but the banter between you two is great!” Still not knowing what to call him inside of his mind, Dave settled on cute guy. Yup, definitely a good name for him.

“It is. Anyways, we are meeting with John and Jade because of Scratch's business. I'm sure you remember the business extremely well Dave, considering what happened.” Leave it to Rose to ruin the mood with depressing shit. You didn't need a mirror to know your eyes had clouded over with a mixture of sadness, regret and anger that only Dirk understood. Which reminded him, he and Dirk still needed to decide on what the plan was.

“Uh, yeah. Rose said that she could help us. You see, our step mother is kind of psychotic, and went on a killing rampage, and in the process killed our older sister and our father so, we wanted to get them back.” This time the girl, Jade, spoke. 

Dave froze. Why did this sound so familiar?

Wait.

“What's her name? Your step mother's I mean.” Dave spoke, his tone wavering in and out of absolute rage.

“Betty Crocker. Why?” John's voice. A small gasp from Rose.

“You've gotta be shitting me... I'll be back. Gotta make a phone call to special grade asshole number two.” Dave stood and even if he couldn't see Rose, he knew she was looking at him.

On the other side of Derse, somewhere on a large plot of land in a large house, was Dirk Strider, special grade asshole number two according to Dave Strider. And Dirk's phone was ringing the set ringtone Dirk had set for his younger brother, one of Dirk's favorite mixes Dave had made a couple years back. 

Pausing his work on his newest robotic project, Dirk wiped his hands on a towel he had placed near him for the very purpose of wiping hands. Answering his phone he wondered why his brother just didn't text him.

“Sup little bro?” 

“Do you remember the woman who killed Bro?”

Dirk dropped the wrench he had picked up on the floor, thankfully not on his feet.

“Get straight to the point why don't you? Geez Dave. What's gotten into you?” Dirk cursed as he picked the wrench up and just put it back where it belonged. This was going to be a long conversation.

“I met with Rose today, and these two people came in to meet with her about contracts, 'cause I guess Scratch is lettin' her handle that shit now, and they started ta' talk bout how their sister and dad were killed by this fuckin' woman, Dirk it was her. They told me her name it was the same woman. We need to do something about this Dirk.” Honestly, it broke Dirk's heart to hear his brother almost to the point of sobbing.

“You want to do the contract don't you.”

“Yes.”

Dirk breathed in and then let out a sigh.

“Alright. Let Rose know I'm on board. We'll go in next week, since I have a bunch of shit to take care of. Now get your ass back home, I don't need shit happening to you after hearing this.” 

The next morning Dirk headed out, leaving Dave to his own devices at their home. Ever since Bro went out a year ago and never came back, Dave had always felt like the house was smaller. Even if it was still the same size as it was when the Strider parents died. Dave could still remember that night.

Bro had went to go get some actual food, since Dave had passed Strider initiation that same day, just four hours earlier. Initiation was weird, it had to do with strifing, and all sorts of other stuff that Striders did. 

But Bro never came back. 

It wasn't unusual for Bro to disappear for a couple weeks at a time. But he always came back. And he was supposed to be getting cake. It was just fucking cake. 

After Dirk and Dave found out he died, nearly a month later, they had a funeral for him. It was simple, just stick one of his swords in the roof and a moment of silence and your good. It was just Dave and Dirk, no one else. No one complained, because everyone knew how close knit the Striders were. It would be out of place to have anyone but the two younger Striders there.

And then they found out via Scratch who killed their Bro. Some chick named Betty Crocker. Dave didn't really know how to deal with it, but Dirk was as stoic as ever, the true spitting image of Bro.

But then Scratch told them about a sort of contract. 

Scratch was kind of like a grim reaper kind of guy. He was adept in all sort of magic, spells and lore. He said it would be nearly impossible to bring him back without trading souls for Bro's. The two Striders knew what this meant, they would probably have to trade in their own souls.

But there was more. 

If they choose to accept, they would only lose half of their soul. They would turn into demons. Their souls would eventually regenerate the loss, but Scratch said he would keep the halves safe. Whatever that meant. It would be an extremely painful process, and if they were to accept the contract, they could bring one person to help them through the process of turning. There were several other things, like what kind of demon they'd be would be random, and that they'd probably have to drink blood or something, but Dave and Dirk decided to think about it.

The thinking turned into a year. Until now.

When Dave woke up, he heard knocking. A loud knocking he immediately recognized. He hadn't even realized he had fallen asleep. Dave slowly got up and walked to the door. He had fallen asleep on the couch near the entrance, so it was a short walk. Before opening the door, he knew who he would see. One of his favorite people actually, someone he had dated for awhile before they realized he just wasn't working out, but somehow they remained best bros. The troll was grouchy, and loud, and incredibly rude sometimes, but he meant well.

That was, until Dave shut everyone out. 

Dave opened the door and saw exactly who he already knew it was. Karkat Vantas.

“Karkat?”

“Who the fuck else would be trying to get through to you after you essentially abandoned all of your friends? God knows Eridan, Terezi and the others don't have enough balls to do it.”

Ah, Dave had missed this.


	2. Transformation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> shit happens

“I'm sorry, you're dragging me along for what?”

It was five hours until Dave and Dirk were supposed to be at Homely, but Dave, however, was more concerned about why his older brother was dragging him along to get ice cream.

“Dirk, I don't even like ice cream.” That was total and complete lie, but Dave really didn't want to get ice cream. For some reason, Dave had almost no energy at the moment. Ever since his long talk with Karkat about how the two were going to go together for the turning or whatever, Dave had felt restless and at the same time, it was like his energy had nearly all but vanished.

Dave wanted to get this over with.

“Yeah you do lil' bro, now come on and get some ice cream with me.” Dirk said almost bemusedly, partially because he probably knew Dave was going to begrudgingly agree to go with him, partially because he was just an ass. And begrudgingly agree to go Dave did.

They decided to walk, since they were already pretty close to their favorite ice cream shop, Void of Hope. Their sister Roxy working there may or may not have had anything to do with it. Of course, a certain crush of Dirk's also worked there, which Dave always teased Dirk about. Frankly it was pretty much the only thing Dave got away with teasing Dirk about.

Love was weird.

“Hey Jakey look! Dirk's here!” Great, Roxy was hatching a plan inside of the ice cream trailer in a food court lot. Just great.

“Hey, Rox, can we just get some ice cream? And then the three of us need to break a leg and get down to Homely.” Dave said it cautiously, looking toward his brother slightly to see if he was right about Roxy being the one Dirk picked to stay with him for the three days. Dirk nodded just enough for Dave to see. God damn asshole was probably already to read minds.

“Homely? What ever for would you need to go to Homely for in such a rush? Is there a gala happening?” Jake finally spoke, and as usual, Dave had no idea what the actual fuck some of his vocabulary meant. What the hell was a gala? Whatever.

“Nah, we just need to see Scratch about some stuff.” Dirk always sounded slightly insecure whenever he was talking to Jake, like his cool kid facade had been destroyed by some guy with an accent. Dave rolled his eyes.

Roxy came back from the other side of the trailer with three ice cream cones and handed one to each of the boys, Dave with strawberry, Dirk with orange and Jake with lime. Dave hadn't noticed her leave, god she was weird like that.

“Alrighty boys, got you three the usual ice creams. These are on the house this time 'kay? Jake you can hold down the pillow fort while I'm gone can't cha?” Roxy said with an easy smile, while Jake saluted as she hung up her apron, and she walked outside of the trailer. She waved goodbye to Jake and Dirk almost let out a small smile. Dave simply saluted and they were off, ice cream in Strider hands and a phone in Roxy's.

* * *

 

They got to Homely a bit early. Karkat was already there, as well as Rose, and they all just kind of looked at each other for a minute before Rose nodded and the two Striders walked up to the fourth floor with the others in tow.

When the group came to Scratch's personal office, the door was wide open, and the middle aged man was sitting down in one of the chairs. There were two mattresses on the ground with a blanket and two pillows each. Obviously this was going to take awhile. Dave looked up at his brother from the mattresses and saw Dirk had taken off his shades. The younger Strider saw the elder's eyes flick towards him and they both nodded.

This was it.

“Alright, so how the hell is this going to work numbskulls?” Karkat's voice brought Dave's eyes to the troll, and Dave just dramatically rolled them.

“Patience Karkat. All will be explained.” Rose said, and Dave shivered visibly.

“You sound like a creepy witch Rose.” Dave said, a little creeped out.

“I'm sorry, was I not one already?”

“Hmm, I suppose you're right dear sister.” Dave snickered.

“Rose, if you will please get the vials from the back.” Rose immediately straightened and went to go do as she was told.

Scratch gestured for the Striders to sit on a mattress, along with their chosen friend. They all did just that, and Rose came back with two very large class bottles. The bottles were round at the bottom, with a thick nozzle at the top and a cork sealing the vials.

“Now, the process of taking half of your soul isn't that painful, it should only feel like the burn of a fresh cut, just all over your body. It shouldn't take to long, maybe ten minutes at most. The painful part however, is turning. This will take around twenty minutes after the contract has been sealed and hexed, and you both should remain here while you are turning into your demon forms. After you have fully turned, you should be able to turn back to a more human form at will. I recommend you both practicing shifting between both forms while you two are still here. Now, Roxy and Karkat. You two are strictly here for comforting purposes. You may not try to intervene with this process otherwise you will owe me. If you have any questions you may ask Rose, as I will be incredibly busy sealing and hexing the contract. And after all of this, your brother will be returned to you.” Scratch finished with a cough and took the vials from Rose, while giving both Striders a sheet of paper, a pen, and a small knife.

“Please sign here and then slice across the tip of your middle finger, and let the blood mix with the ink. Rose will separate your souls.”

Dave and Dirk exchanged a look.

It was happening. They were going to get Bro back.

Dave won't deny any accusations of being excited for his brother's return. Who wouldn't be? He took a breath and signed, then cut where he was told. He winced as the blade tugged on his skin, and he realized he wouldn't have done so if he were normally strifing with Bro. Dirk was good, but the two hardly ever scratched each other, and it was always a draw between them. Dave saw out of the corner of his eyes that Dirk had done the same as him without wincing, cough asshole cough, and the blood was mixing with the dark ink.

Rose came over after getting the corks replaced so they could tell whose was whose, and started chanting something after saying that they'd fall asleep during this part.

* * *

 

When Dave fell asleep he began to feel empty, and he knew Rose's chanting was doing something back in reality.

“Dave?” Said Strider looked over at the source of the voice and found it to be not Dirk, but John Egbert. In a field of flowers.

“John? What are you doing here?”

“Huh? This is my dream, I should be asking you that!” John was laughing a little, and the easy smile he wore made Dave's stomach twist and turn. And not in the bad way. Dave decided to just go with it.

“Yeah yeah, you got me. Damn, I was really looking forward to messing with you too...”

“Well, that's kind of weird...” John looked down and Dave made a questioning sound.

“I barely know you, how is my brain making you talk like that? It feels too natural...”

All of a sudden, the scenery began to shift and distort, and Dave had the feeling his time with John was over.

He was right.

* * *

 

Dave's eyes snapped open, and he felt very, very strange. What was that? Why was some incredibly cute dork in his dream, who thought it was his own? What the fuck was up with that shit? Dave may never know.

Dave immediately looked for Karkat, who was right beside him, and he hugged the troll almost instantly.

“Woah, Strider what the actual fuck?” Karkat didn't sound angry, but his words were. He was probably just confused.

A small gasp had the entire room save for Scratch look at Dirk, who had just woken up as well.

Dave stared at his brother. He looked so weak, was that how he himself looked?

“The contracts are finished. All that's left is the transformation and you'll have him back. It should start right about, now...”

Suddenly, Dave felt pain all over. A burning numbing pain that was hard to ignore but easy to forget for about a grand total of four seconds. Dave separated from Karkat and he crouched into a ball. He didn't think about Dirk, not even about Bro. He just thought of the pain and how much it hurt.

It felt like the year that Bro was gone all over again.

It felt like a year until at last the pain stopped.

Dave opened his eyes to find a mirror in front of him. And he was scared.

His hair was almost all white now, with black tips. The whites of his eyes were now a deep black, and his pupils looked gear shaped now, and his irises were a brighter red than he had ever seen his eyes become. And then he saw the fangs, and how pointy his ears were. It looked like his piercings on his eyebrow and nose had carried over. He relaxed a little, but then he noticed the wings.

Why the fuck did he have fucking black crow wings? Come on, seriously? Of all birds it had to be a fucking crow.

He tried touching one of his wings, and found he could definitely feel that. Dave looked at his nails and saw they were slightly gray and slightly longer and sharper.

God this better be worth it.

“Oh my god you both have wings.” Karkat said, completely in shock after looking at Dirk.

Dave moved the mirror and saw that his brother had wings as well, but they were more Dove like and white. Dave internally cursed his brother. How dare he.

His brother had the same eyes, but with heart shaped pupils and orange irises. Dirk also had a tail, so Dave guessed he was pretty lucky.

The two brothers took in each others appearances for a minute, until they heard a voice they never thought they would hear again just a year ago.

“Why are my lil' bros fuckin birds?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaaaa i did it
> 
> hope you all enjoyed!
> 
> now to write a sort of filler chapter for christmas  
> deer god save me
> 
> also sorry if scratchs characterization is off ive never written him before.


End file.
